National Poetry Month: Guest Poet Samantha Gomez

My daughter Samantha has been writing poetry in her creative writing class, and she agreed to share one of her poems with us for National Poetry Month. Enjoy!

Used Book Store

The Grandfather of book stores

wears a tweed jacket

corduroy elbow patches

and a walrus mustache.

He invites you in

for a spot of tea--well

maybe just a cup of bad coffee.

You know it's bad,

but drink it anyway.

Part of the experience.

Meanwhile, Grandfather

lights his pipe,

leans back in his leather-bound armchair

and inadvertently

puffs smoke

onto the Classics section, which

really shouldn't be a good thing,

but somehow it is.

Now the books have character, life.

Now

flipping through the well-loved pages

of a used paperback in the Classics section

is like gathering snapshots

of someone else's essence.

Someone who, like you

wandered bleary-eyed one day

into this book store,

was offered a cup

of bad coffee

and

surrounded by accumulated bits

of an old grandfather's wisdom,

never wanted to leave.

(c) Samantha Gomez

Samantha Gomez is a high school senior who dreams of a life without biology homework. She aspires to one day direct a choir of whiny teenagers in the faraway land of Not-in-the-midwest. Writing poetry is a recently acquired hobby of hers--indeed, she wrote her first poem since 6th grade just last week.